SANFORD, Fla. – The Division I Senior Women’s Club Championships came to a thrilling conclusion as the Berkeley All Blues touched in a last minute try to slip past Beantown 25-18 and claim the 2007 title at Sylvan Lake Park today.

Beantown was the first to strike in the aggressive match when captain Kelly Seary connected on a penalty kick in the eighth minute. Despite a back and forth battle for the try line, Berkeley dominated the scoreboard for the remainder of the first half, with wing Laura Cabrera running in two tries and All Blues captain Rose Whitmore contributing another to the squad’s scoring run.

In the second half, Beantown refused to go down without a fight, notching two unanswered tries and two successful kicks from Seary to surge ahead of the All Blues 18-15 with less than 15 minutes remaining in the match. Beantown put up a strong defensive effort to hold the lead, but Berkeley’s Victoria Folayan snuck in for a late try as the clock was winding down. Nathalie Marchino converted to push the All Blues ahead to a final of 25-18.

“Beantown plays right up until the 80 minutes, so there was no taking any moment for granted – especially when it was very close and they were ahead. We knew that if we didn’t keep possession of the ball, Kelly (Seary) might do a dropkick,” Berkeley All Blues Coach Kathy Flores said following the match. “We definitely have a lot of respect for the Beantown team.”

Berkeley captain Rose Whitmore, who was named the Senior Women’s Club Championships’ Most Valuable Player following the match, said the comeback victory was a solid team effort.

“We dug deep today and that’s what Berkeley does,” Whitmore said. “There was a moment out there when we looked at each other and said, ‘This isn’t happening. We’re going to come back and win it.'”

In the third place match, it was a brutal battle of the blue and orange as the Twin Cities Amazons took on the 2007 champion New York squad in a match that had multiple players seeing yellow. The Amazons led 12-7 going into the break, but a recharged New York team turned up the heat at the close of the second half to send the match into extra minutes. Tyshawn Henry led the comeback and powered in for back-to-back tries to bring the match to a 17-17 tie with little time to spare. Following a physical display from both sides, New York went on to win 22-17 in overtime.

The Oregon Sports Union (ORSU) put up a strong fight against Keystone in the fifth place match, but fell short with a 20-23 final. Keystone’s Ines Rodriquez got her team on the board in minute 12. However, by the break the resilient ORSU squad surged ahead 15-8, following an impressive pair of tries from Valerie Burns and San Juanita Moreno within the last two minutes. Keystone came strong out of the gate in the second, holding the ORSU side scoreless for the majority of the half. ORSU’s Beckett Royce pitched in a late try to bring her team within three, but Keystone emerged with the win at the final whistle.

Philadelphia and the Atlanta Harlequins squared off for seventh in an aggressive showing from both sides. Atlanta’s Linda Abaray booted in two drop goals for the Harlequins, but in the end the Philadelphia Women found themselves on top, with a final score of 26-6.

DIVISION I SENIOR WOMEN’S CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS1st place – Berkeley All Blues2nd place – Beantown3rd place – New York4th place – Twin Cities Amazons5th place – Keystone6th place – ORSU7th place – Philadelphia8th place – Atlanta Harlequins

And in D-II, thanks to Kurt for posting early scores from the weekend, here’s how it played out …